Dr. Noam Werner
Innovative, motivated and passionate about wildlife conservation, Noam holds a B.A. in social sciences from the Hebrew University, an M.A. in Environmental Sciences, and a PhD in Zoology from Tel Aviv University in the field of animal behavior. He has been a member of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo’s senior management team for over 15 years as a zoologist and general curator. Noam serves as the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Deer TAG chair as well as Co-Chair for the IUCN/SSC Deer Specialist Group and is also heavily involved with the Jerusalem Zoo's Mesopotamian fallow-deer reintroduction project.
In addition to planning and establishing many new exhibits at the Jerusalem Zoo, Noam also held a leading position in the professional team which planned and established the Israel Aquarium in Jerusalem (an independent, standalone facility where he now also serves as zoologist and curator). These duties included supervising conceptual, zoological, educational and experiential aspects as well as technical systems installation (where the technical experience gained during his service as a submarine crew member came in very handy).
For 10 years Noam presented the "Animal Behavior" course at the Open University. As part of his duties at the Jerusalem Zoo, he presents advanced zookeeper courses and also mentors young researchers. During his studies, Noam worked independently, as the only “fish person” in a mostly bird-focused research team, work that also included a 3-month long fieldwork in Africa as a member of a multi-national team. This experience later allowed him to initiate a wide range of independent and collaborative research at the zoo, including behavioral studies on subjects such as zebra aggression, co-housing of adult rhino bulls, or flying-fox welfare following night tours; population management studies such as factors that influence fallow-deer breeding biology, taxonomy and genetics of threatened species, such as the Egyptian tortoise and the Dead-Sea tooth-carp; morphology; nutrition; conservation ecology and more.